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Square One Prep Overview

About Square One Prep

Square One Prep is a full-service consulting company that offers 24/7 support for applicants working their way through the MBA admissions process. They also offer support with the EMBA for clients who are going down that route. They claim a success rate of about 80% for getting first-time applicants into schools, and 86% for people who are reapplying.

Basics

This company offers two types of services.

The main choice is their Comprehensive Services package, which starts with an assessment of candidacy and an application development schedule, then moves through the process of choosing schools, creating resumes, and generally applying to each school. As part of this comprehensive package, applicants receive as many mock interviews as they’d like to have, helping to better prepare them for any interviews they’re invited to.

Square One Prep also offers a number of hourly services, and their site includes a full breakdown of the estimated time spent on each item. This helps applicants get a sense for both how long it will take and how much they can expect to pay.

All services are available on either the Standard or the Premium tier. The higher-priced tier includes working with people who are more experienced with the MBA process, or directly with the owner, rather than the company’s other employees.

Square One Prep Cost and Contact Info

The comprehensive package is available starting at $2900 for one school at the Standard Tier, or $4500 for one school at the Premium Tier. Additional schools beyond the first are $800/$1200 each, respectively. The same rate is charged whether additional schools are purchased up-front or added on at a later date. They do not allow mixing of Premium and Standard services.

Hourly services are available for $185 per hour at the Standard tier, and $275 per hour for the Premium tier.

Square One Prep can be reached by email at info@squareoneprep.com or by phone at +1 (888) 702-3542. They do not have a contact form, but they do have a free consultation form on their website at www.squareoneprep.com.

Reviews Statistic

3.5

3.5 out of 3.5

2 Ratings

5 Stars 0

4 Stars 1

3 Stars 1

2 Stars 0

1 Star 0

2 reviews for Square One Prep Overview

4 out of 5

Mohit Gupta – October 10, 2016:

Why I chose SOP – As I was doing my due diligence, I had a initial consultations with all the major players in the Admissions Consulting business. For SOP, I discussed my aspirations and expectations with Kathryn, who also owns the firm. During that call itself, I was surprised to see how deeply involved I felt Kathryn was in assessing my needs and whether SOP could help me succeed (she really believes in this). I would really nudge anyone considering to hire admission consultants to have this free call with her and this is a benchmark the other firms need to raise themselves to.

Working with them – I worked with Manisha Shahane as my consultant. I started with just one school, but ended up working with her on all the schools that I applied to. Was this necessary? No, but she became such a trusted partner in my application journey that I wanted to involve her in any decision I took for my application and she was supportive right from Early Action till R4 dates. Manisha is highly competent and knows how to craft a compelling storyline for the top schools. Even though some of my timelines were aggressive, Manisha was always there to support me because of which I was able to put my best foot forward each time. Much of this work is creative as well as about respecting what the applicant’s personal experiences are. Manisha is a thorough professional and understood where to nudge me to think deeper to bring out important nuggets of my experiences (and these are the real differentiators) as well as where to hold back so as not to influence the originality of my story. Workflow wise, she would always communicate the time-frame when she would send back the edits and I always had them back in that time. As MBA admissions have become so competitive with many variables involved, its really important to stay positive throughout the entire process. Manisha helped me there as well by keeping on motivating me throughout the process.

Another great benefit of working with SOP is their unique approach to handling LORs for multiple schools so that the process is not taxing on recommender’s time. Kathryn’s approach makes submitting LORs to multiple schools very straightforward and should be definitely emulated by all.

I wholeheartedly recommend SOP to everyone considering applying to M7 or even top-10 schools, as creating those schools’ specific strategy is the best use of consultants like Manisha that SOP has.

MBA Program & Grad Year: Olin Business School/ Spring 2018

Advice to current prospective applicants: I wholeheartedly recommend SOP to everyone considering applying to M7 or even top-10 schools, as creating those schools' specific strategy is the best use of consultants like Manisha that SOP has.

3 out of 5

Ship – June 16, 2016:

My consultant left the firm

MBA Program & Grad Year: 2016

Advice to current prospective applicants: It's more about specific consultant that you work with and less about the form

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